William McCants for the Brookings Institution: For some, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is just a cipher, manipulated by non-religious ex-Baathists or thugs who are using the Islamic State to attain power. Or he’s a cog in a machine, an expression of an impersonal institution or historical forces. These views at least agree that Baghdadi is not his own man; his sins are the sins of others, perhaps Saddam Hussein, perhaps George W. Bush, perhaps a cabal of former regime loyalists. If Baghdadi disappears, the argument goes, he will just be replaced by a new mindless figurehead.
But the bare facts of Baghdadi’s biography show an unusually capable man. He helped found an insurgent group, finished a Ph.D. while managing the religious affairs of the Islamic State and has been able to prevail amid the Islamic State’s cutthroat politics because of his skill at coalition building and his ability to intimidate his rivals. The consolidation of the Islamic State’s territorial gains in Syria and its rapid expansion into Iraq came after the death of his “prince of shadows.”
Although The New York Times recently reported that he himself is making arrangements for a succession in the event of his demise by devolving many of his military powers to subordinates, his blend of religious scholarship and political cunning won’t be easily replaced. None of his possible successors combine his prophetic lineage, religious knowledge and skill at winning powerful friends and quieting dissent.
Paid parental leave is a rare perk
Susan Balding for the Economic Policy Institute: At the beginning of August, Netflix announced that it would grant its employees “unlimited” parental leave during the first year after a child’s birth or adoption. After the initial praise, though, a darker side of the announcement was revealed: Only “salaried streaming employees,” the roughly 2,000 white-collar workers who work in the company’s streaming division, will be covered by the new policy. Employees of Netflix’s DVD distribution centers, meanwhile, will not receive the benefit of paid parental leave.
A few have asked whether Netflix’s paid parental leave policy will set a new standard in the American workplace. Unfortunately, the exclusion of its lower-paid workers from the policy already reflects a harsh reality facing U.S. workers: Paid family leave is a rarity, and when it is offered, the recipients are much more likely to be high-wage earners…
Only 12 percent of private-sector workers in the United States receive paid family leave, a percentage that puts us behind our international peers. Among the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, for example, the United States is the only nation that does not mandate paid maternity leave.
Which U.S. workers receive paid family leave is heavily determined by how much they earn, just like Netflix’s policy. While 23 percent of workers at the top of the wage distribution have access to paid family leave, only 4 percent of workers at the bottom receive the benefit.
Sharing lunch with the trash can
Natalie Johnson for the Daily Signal: The government’s push to mandate kids to eat healthier is finding its efforts at the bottom of a waste bin.
A study published in Public Health Reports found that while kids may be piling more fruits and vegetables onto their plates as federal guidelines require, most are just tossing the healthy additions into the trash.
Researcher Sarah Amin found waste more common after the Department of Agriculture implemented guidelines, championed by first lady Michelle Obama, that require children participating in the federal school lunch program to accompany their meals with either a fruit or veggie…
Researchers from the University of Vermont visited two elementary schools and took photographs of students’ lunch trays before and after they ate. They repeated the experiment twice: once in the spring of 2012 before the USDA requirement was in place and again the following year when it was in full effect.
Unsurprisingly, they found that when mandated to do so, students put 29 percent more fruits and vegetables on their plates. But kids were not actually eating the healthy adornments: Consumption dropped 13 percent and food waste increased by 56 percent after the USDA requirement.
The findings come one month before Congress is set to vote on whether to reauthorize the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which in part provides funding for federal school lunches.
This article appears in the Sept. 14 edition of the Washington Examiner magazine.
Compiled by Joseph Lawler from reports published by the various think tanks.
